John Branch

John Branch (4 November 1782-3 January 1863) was Governor of North Carolina (DR) from 6 December 1817 to 7 December 1820 (succeeding William Miller and preceding Jesse Franklin), a US Senator from 4 March 1823 to 3 March 1829 (succeeding Montfort Stokes and preceding Bedford Brown), US Secretary of the Navy from 9 March 1829 to 12 May 1831 (succeeding Samuel L. Southard and preceding Levi Woodbury), a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NC 2) from 12 May 1831 to 3 March 1833 (succeeding Willis Alston and preceding Jesse Atherton Bynum), and Governor of the Florida Territory from 11 August 1844 to 25 June 1845 (succeeding Richard K. Call and preceding William Dunn Moseley).

Biography
John Branch was born in Halifax County, North Carolina on 4 November 1782, and he served in the State Senate from 1811 to 1817 before serving as Governor from 1817 to 1820. He then served in the US Senate from 1823 to 1829, as Secretary of the Navy from 1829 to 1831, as a member of the US House of Representatives from 1831 to 1833, and as Governor of the Florida Territory from 1844 to 1845. He was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson, and Branch's nephew Lawrence O'Bryan Branch served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War.